So this is kind of a old project of mine, and I stopped working on it some time ago, mainly because of missing knowledge, but also because coding is not really my thing and I prefer building train routes in a visual 3d world editor.

However, the recent conversation in the Rijndam announcements thread reminded me of the lack of announcements in this sim again, and what a pain it is to create and manage them with the old MSTS Afroeptool we've been using that forced mp3 files to be unique over all subfolders of the program, routes being all put into one text file and when that got to big the program would refuse to load, so I dug up my old project again.

As I'm not going to continue that in the near future apart from keeping the current stuff updated (adding new lines and trains of 3.14 to the system) I thought about opening this up to contributions, specially since I also reached a point at which my knowledge with coding isn't sufficient to get a nice graphical UI etc I wanted to open this up, maybe its useful for others to not having to bother around with the old MSTS program anymore?

Included with the program is a documented map file telling you how to set up routes in the program, which to manage is now a lot easier than in the old Afroeptool.

Also, which is more of a gimmick, but if you use the chat service Discord, then you can now display in your playing status your current line, station you are at and what train you have through this program for others to see.

The program also includes english announcements for Simvliet (usable for all versions basically), although a map file has only been partially written by me, but extending that is easy.

So, as I already said, feel free to extend the functionality of the program, or just use it how it is right now for Simvliet
The dependencies required for running the program are listed in the description. If you have any further questions, ask here.

First of all, you need Node JS https://nodejs.org/en/
Then you download the mikannounce tool and unpack it somewhere. Where doesnt matter, but its best if its a location you can easily type into command prompt.

Then you open command prompt by pressing windows + R, then typing "cmd" and hitting enter,
navigate to whereever you unpacked MIkannounce by typing "cd P:\ath\to\MIkannounce" and hitting enter

now you need to install discord-rpc (even if you don't have discord this is currently required cause otherwise the program will give you an error) by typing "npm install discord-rpc" and hitting enter

Now we still need a sound player, currently the program needs mpg123 but I might replace it with a better solution in the future. Visit https://www.mpg123.de/download.shtml for the download of that program

If all is installed you should be able to start mikannounce by typing "node main.js" and hitting enter, theres some on screen instructions, but basically you can list all avaliable maps by doing /maps and select one with /map load mapname, for Simvliet you would do "/map load SimvlietEN".
After a map is loaded it will show you the routes and their respective IDs which you need to enter in the /route command. So if you wanna go from Simvliet Airport to Araplein you would do "/route TA" and hit enter.

after that, to play an announcement just hit enter.
Note that I haven't come very far with the simvliet mappack as I hope on others to extend it with further routes following the examples in the mappacks I have included, the annoucnements are all avaliable.

And also I'm aware the installation process sounds a little confusing, but thats since i tried to explain all simple steps. Users who are familliar with commandprompt in Windows can skip the majority and shouldn't find it confusing.

Oooof! 2 difficult 4 me! Also you should count with fact, that some people here aren't registered on Discord yet, like me.
Sorry MetroSimGermany, but this annoucer tool is too complicated. Otherwise I prefer english annouces from german, because I can't understand german very well.
If you want to use English annouces. You can download an english text to speech program called Speakonia. Here you can use many text to speech voices you want. It also has lexicon, so you can fix mispronouce of dutch words.

If you want to make a very fast ride, just disable ATB/ZUB, put trottle to 1.00 and enjoy.
In my Avatar is a Logo of a Prague metro.
Sorry for my bad English. I am Czech and i am learning English

As I mentioned, this is far from finished
Maybe when I'm super bored I'll complete the map files and activity files, then I can just make a video on how to install

I think what you got wrong is that discord itself is not at all needed. However, once you installed nodejs you need to install the code package called "discord-rpc" as described in the tutorial. Again, this is not Discord itself and does not require a Discord account.

That said, Discord is amazing for discussion/talking outside of the forums, as forums usually work at a slow pace, where as chat services like Discord provide quick real time talking and easy interaction. Voice chat is also available for people who are too lazy to type

If anyones interested, feel free to join the "CentralStation" server on Discord which is based on trains in games and real life (and sometimes busses too)
by using this link https://discord.gg/3QJ2SSN